


Closing the Divide

by sparklight



Series: Evolution of a Revolution [3]
Category: Transformers (Dreamwave Generation One)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-24 20:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3783805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklight/pseuds/sparklight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cybertron no longer remembers that its population is divided into two; military and civilian. And while it seems this lack of knowledge will harm nothing, there's rumblings underneath the surface. Rumblings which are noted by at least one individual. Steps are taken in the hope that it's not too late to not just keep Cybertron stable, but to keep both its parts remembering that they are halves of a whole.</p>
<p>Whether it's too late or not, Optronix and Magnus will have to take their first steps onto the planet together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

Deep within Cybertron, there was a seal. The metal flat and cold, it still glowed with power from the light within. At one point, there hadn't been a seal covering what was underneath, and the light hadn't just suffused Cybertron, but turned it into a beacon throughout the universe. 

It had been, and still was, where sparks came from.

Nowadays, sparks were conveyed into their function by other means, and this domed space was still and quiet. It wasn't _unaware_ , though. 

Suppressed due to necessity, sleeping due to need, but not _unaware_. Dreams could relay what was needed to be heard to the dreamer, after all. The Sonic Canyons gathered all that could be heard; stray bits of data sent over wireless airwaves, chatter and thoughts, secrets and plans. Cybertron practically sang with all that was happening, and the Canyons were there to catch it and eventually it was processed by Vector Sigma.

It took time for that information to not just be _gathered_ this way but also for it to be conveyed to the presence so deep within, however. Time which meant any reaction in response to what was happening was, by necessity, delayed. But the changes happening through the ages had been noted, and the light that slumbered within Cybertron was concerned.

The ages had passed, and with them the First of them as well, mostly. One still lingered on Cybertron itself, a stalwart sentinel. But a single light couldn't ward off the darkness, merely ameliorate it, and in this case... Turning to listen to the concerned planning, Primus worried. They were intending to pretend there was no difference between the two complementary code-lines.

This had not been the intention.

Not because the parts weren't equal, _couldn't_ compliment each other; that was, after all, what they were _supposed_ to do. The problem lay in that this tampering with the intended balance would, sooner or later, cause unrest the children shouldn't need to deal with, and a lot of them wouldn't be _ready_ to deal with it.

Gentle pushes were sent through Sigma and on to its guardian, who, of course, did his best.

In the end, it wasn't enough. The changes stayed, and more than that were used as a base for the new society. The issue was that what was at its core an admirable concept and a good basis to treat others - we're all equal and there are no differences - were being used to ignore differences that were very, very real. Primus heard and turned in slow, ponderous concern, the light pulsing through the core in muted waves. 

This would end in disaster.

The knowledge flooded through the multihued gold, sending upset skitters of spark energy rippling through the rainbows. It was knowledge formed from how the two parts had been made and what the stresses of pretence that there were no differences between them would do, not from prescience and even less _omniscience_.

Primus wasn't omniscient, because that wasn't how life worked; all that could be done was work with what was available and within the constraints of the situation. Undoing the seal wasn't even considered. Doing that would act as a beacon to the deepest, darkest reaches of space and beyond and would allow things the children weren't ready for yet to fall upon them with crushing rage.

So the light twisted around itself, searching for an answer while all the while watching the dance of dispersing sparks sinking into the gold, of the new sparks rising out of it and slowly being drawn out...

Ah.

Maybe _that_ was the answer.

Roused from slow, dreaming concern, each spark that left the golden expanse was carefully watched. Not just any of them would do, what was needed was---

The two that were slowly being drawn further away, one after the other, had... potential.

In the infinite second between the first spark still lingering in the gold at the core and leaving, Primus swept them both up in an opalescent, golden grip and brought them close.

They were perfect. Not in themselves, because sparks, for all that they were glowing wells of power, life, desires, and as life was lived, memories, were not perfect. And each of these two sparks, individually, weren't perfect either. Oh, no, they were as imperfect as any little mote of life would ever be.

No, what they were were perfect for the _plan_. They were each a glittering... ah, _perfect_ example of the division that had quietly, carefully, been seeded in the Well, from and by the light as the First worked to tease the first, new sparks out. One was the necessary stability, adaptability; the core that was necessary to not just build society, but be it. The other was the change, the force... the protection needed to keep the society safe.

Humming softly, the sound reverberating through the gold, they were brought closer.

_Would you like to embark on a journey together?_

They stilled, these soon-to-be lives, and, while the question wasn't just a difficult one in and of itself, but one that was further somewhat tricky to _understand_ from a limited experience, they still considered.

Curiosity and confusion from one, dipping briefly into stony, contemplative silence because _what_ was even meant? Journey? With _something else_ beside that which was the only thing it knew? The confusion didn't dissipate, but was soon put aside for acceptance because what was everything if not new happenings? Even if they were confusing. And Primus could see both the difficulties this one would face and the infinite possibilities of greatness if the circumstances were right.

The other was curious, but far more ready to simply accept out of hand, as what had been asked was a charge. And charges were things this spark understood implicitly. Nonetheless, it still paused, torn between the _known_ (as much as anything could be known, in this glittering, warm infinity) duty and this new, strange one. Primus would not laugh at how the small scraps of knowledge was compared and something of a strategy attempted to be worked out from what the new spark knew; oh, this one would surely rise to great heights as well...

The answer, in the end, from both of them, was 'yes'.

Such a difficult, not to say _impossible_ question, and they had responded with all the due thought they _could_. Not that it was a fair question, but _not_ asking wasn't something that would be contemplated either.

_This is your most important charge, the single thing that matters should anything come between you._

Gently, threads of code and light were carefully chosen and teased out to be tied together; a glowing net that connected them as much as it anchored.

_And what matters is that you **never** let go, as each of you is the most important thing to keep close._

It had been untold ages since such an active hand had been laid onto any spark that passed from and through the light, and not even split-spark twins would have a connection as carefully made as these two. It would be a string perfectly woven together from two sources, complimentary and opposing.

_Hold each other close, walk next to each other and listen to each other. And never forget; whatever happens, this is your most important thing, so never leave the other behind._

Pausing, a minute tremble echoed through the gold, and Primus almost didn't let go. Almost allowed one of the other sparks waiting to pass through, because this was such a _fragile_ plan, relied too much on the lived experience and the personalities of these two imperfect, beautiful sparks...

The light let go and the sparks disappeared, drawn _outside_ by the call from the Matrix. 

Those two was, as things stood now, its greatest hope.

The rest was up to _them_.


	2. The Twin Suns of Cybertron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alpha Trion is having something of an annoying day, as the Covenant refuses to cooperate in a way that doesn't happen often. While trying to walk off the frustration, Trion comes across Iacon's Ignition ceremony by accident.
> 
> ... or maybe it's not an *accident*, considering what happens during it.

**The depths of the High Council Pavilions, two and a half million years before the Great War is unleashed.**

The display shone, casting glittering reflections on the available surfaces and turning Alpha Trion's magenta and purple into metal gas clouds with stars. It was beautiful.

It was also not what he'd been looking for.

Frowning at the projected twin stars the Covenant was seeing fit to show him, Alpha Trion sighed. He'd been attempting to work for more than a joor already, both trying to peer _forward_ into the futures that usually refused to be readable, and _backwards_ for details he might have missed... memories to be relived.

None of it had worked, because no matter what he did he was stuck with the display of the twin suns, reminding him of Cybertron's own suns... Though if it was supposed to have been a perfect representation, it was missing the tiny red dwarf. Shaking his helm, Trion hesitated for a moment longer before he closed the Covenant and stood up.

Perhaps he would have a more productive day if he went to Vector Sigma instead. 

Putting the Covenant back on its stand, Alpha Trion cast a look around the domed, stained-glass walled room and found it as it should be, and left. The corridors led to stairs, curving in and up on themselves, then into the upper levels of a gallery where those on the floor below could not see that anyone was passing up above. At the end was an elevator, and that one certainly didn't take a path that most other elevators in this building would, inexplicably opening its doors to the entrance hall of the Grand Oratory.

Further, after Alpha Trion had stepped out, the single civil servant that had spotted him step out of the elevator wedged between a pillar and an alcove and further tried to use it himself, found it wouldn't open for him. The tall purple and dark magenta mech didn't turn around at the noise of frustration, and he also didn't smile as he saw the poor mech trek across the large hall to join one of the small crowds in front of the _actual_ elevators.

While the _annoyance_ the mech felt would probably linger for a bit yet, he'd probably end up attributing it to having to jostle the rest of the crowds for the elevators and having forgotten the real cause by the end of the day. Which was what _usually_ happened if anyone happened to see Alpha Trion leave that elevator. It was safest that way.

The suns were high in the sky when he stepped out of the Grand Oratory, though the shadows cast by the buildings ensured he wouldn't get any sunlight in his face immediately, more's the pity. Tilting his helm back and letting the dry, hot wind wash over him, Alpha Trion decided it would at least be a day yet before there was risk of any storms, so walking would be all right.

He didn't have a goal in mind, merely chose a route that would take him high up enough to allow the full strength of the summer suns to warm his plating. Even if that would force his cooling systems to work more than what was quite necessary otherwise, especially given the warm winds and air as well. Not that he wasn't _used to it_ , and it'd be worse closer to the equator... but ah, he was old and quite lazy, so one would forgive him for _usually_ taking the path of least resistance, hm?

Though, in this case that would've meant taking one of the vehicles supplied by the Pavilions and enjoying the air conditioning of said vehicle. So, perhaps he hadn't _quite_ taken the path of _least_ resistance in this case. 

There had once been those who had complained about the heat and marvelled that he didn't seem to care - enjoyed it, even - and though they were long gone for one reason or another, their voices seemed to linger today, in the air itself, from the faint vibration of the metal beneath his feet...

Shaking his helm and stopping in the shadow offered by the next building, Trion briefly considered that he might be getting _somewhat_ too old if the summer suns was making him _nostalgic_. Or maybe it was just something by how he'd been insistently _thwarted_ in his attempts at working today; it was such a rare thing...

About to continue on his aimless walk, Alpha Trion paused and turned back around again, looking up at the rather modestly square, if not _small_ building he'd been leaning against.

"... Perhaps that will be the goal for today, then. It has been a while," Trion murmured to himself with a small smile, and, quite ignoring the arched looks of the by-passers, found the entrance.

It was locked, but that wasn't _unusual_. It wasn't as if what was contained within was at the open perusal and curiosity of the general public, and either way, he had a key. A key which required nothing more than his hand against the reader set into the wall beside the door, and letting his energy signature be read.

Shortly after the door slid aside and Alpha Trion could step into a gently lit, airy hall, its domed roof high and contradicting the square outside. It was cool inside, especially in comparison to the heat of the day, but there was nothing unusual with _that_ \- what was more _unusual_ was the guards at the doors opposite to the entrance, who, despite their professionally distant expressions, certainly took note of him.

He was vaguely amused to see the faintest of flickers of their optics, since that was the equivalent of full-turnaround surprise from less disciplined individuals. Nothing less to be expected of the Primal Guard, if he wasn't _completely_ wrong. The sun emblazoned prominently on their armour and the energo halberds were quite obvious hints, though.

So as to not _unduly_ terrorise the mechs, who clearly hadn't expected anyone to enter - or maybe be _able to enter_ \- at the moment, Trion remained close to the entrance, hands at his back and studying the mosaic set into the floor. He'd fallen out of touch with the schedule of things, if he'd completely missed that there was to be an Ignition this year, even less _today_.

Alpha Trion paused at that, optics briefly widening and his facial decoration hiding the slight twitch at the corner of his lips, all the while he kept his optics on the mosaic. It was _quite_ the happenstance that he would simply feel like a walk today, and walk past the Ignition Chambers, wasn't it?

The mosaic on the floor pulsed softly with the light from beneath it, each little shard of metal partly translucent and the pattern spiralling wider until it made the whole picture of Cybertron and its twin suns. Or, if you looked a bit closer to the lines and features of 'Cybertron'; a spark chamber, a spark and a pool of light most would assume to be the Matrix, but was just as much meant to be the Well.

Staring at the mosaic, Alpha Trion also thought of the vague similarity between the mosaic and the only view the Covenant had deigned to give him all morning...

"Alpha Trion!" the call, even if it was subdued in deference to the situation and location, still seemed to burst with friendly cheer, and with a shake of his helm, Trion looked up to meet the optics of the medic who'd come out to meet him and smiled. Bypass was, as always, smiling, though the angle of the smile and the glow of his visor revealed his actual and completely sincere pleasure at finding this mech standing on his literal and proverbial doorstep.

"Here for the Ignition?"

"Bypass," with a shake of his helm, he matched Bypass' outstretched arm and rested his palm on the chestplating that covered the spark chamber, right above Bypass' cockpit as the medic mirrored his greeting, "and I would say I was, but I would be lying since I seem to have forgotten the scheduling... though since I ended up here either way, I would definitely _stay_."

"You're always welcome, of course. You have had less to do with the current Prime?" Bypass tilted his helm and flicked a wing towards the guards at the door barring the entrance deeper into the complex, "since this is the first time I have been called out with the guards having no idea who it is at the door, rather than simply being warned you've come to participate." There was nothing but idle curiosity and warm openness in Bypass' voice and on his red faceplate, and Alpha Trion let out a small, brief static sigh.

"I'm getting old, Bypass, though I will always be present should the Prime wish my counsel," he said quietly as he turned to the door, a hand at Bypass' elbow to turn him as well and merely dipping his helm very shallowly in acknowledgement of the slightly arch look he got in response.

"Of course. But never too old to witness the miracle of life, it appears," Bypass was smiling again, easily having put aside the curiosity of Trion's response for something far more light, "we haven't even gotten that far; four sparked and eight to go still."

The guards gave the northern hemisphere's head protohatcher and his companion both a narrow stare, but they weren't stopped as the doors slid aside to admit them into the next room, cooler air than the entrance hall whispering over them as they went inside.

"Indeed not. If there's one thing I'll never _tire_ of, it's this," Alpha Trion murmured and _meant it_. He'd been present for every single Ignition that he had been able to attend since he'd stepped out of the Well himself, regardless of if those sparks had come from the Well directly or mediated through the Matrix.

"Over here, the third terrace," Bypass said quietly and led the way through the room. It was an airy, open affair with windows high in the ceilings but which were covered for the occasion, wide walkways cutting through the open space around six, six-sided terraces set at different heights, the central piece a pool of nearly white energon.

There were guards again at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the terrace, but they were even more stoic than the ones outside and didn't display any reaction to either of the mechs as they ascended and joined the small crowd standing quietly in the center of the terrace and its twelve protoform pods.

The other protohatchers were present of course, as well as three more of the Primal Guard and Gravitas of the Council. Their optics met and then slid apart with not even a nod and Trion turned towards the opened pod instead of dwelling on the fact that one of the Council of Ancients was present.

It wasn't as if it hadn't happened before, after all. He might just be letting some of his frustration with his arguments with them colour his reaction. Either way, this really wasn't the place for _that_ ; Sentinel Prime, the light sliding off and highlighting his gold, oranges and reds, was kneeling by the pod, chestplates open.

Walking out to the edge of the small group, Bypass noticing and following to stand at his side, Alpha Trion felt a small smile pull at his lips as Sentinel carefully dipped his hand into the thick, viscous liquid and curved it around the finished spark chamber and growing glob of protoform around it. He didn't pull it completely out of the liquid, only far enough so that the front curve of the new spark chamber was in the air, free to open without anything sliding down into the cavity within that was meant for one thing only.

The large gold frame then bent deeper over the opened pod, a faint whisper of sliding metal somehow heard over the collected low rumble of engines.

Light spilled out, pure and blue-white. At first, only a few tendrils stretched out from the bent frame of the Prime, twitching off nonreactive metal and the nurturing liquid in the pod, then it made contact with the protoform attached to the spark chamber. Like magnetized metal filings the tendrils zipped over to the new spark chamber, making the blue sphere in the front glow... Then the spark chamber split apart, revealing the black crystal covering the curved space inside.

Each little zap of the tendrils lit the crystal up into pearlescent white, and a moment later the full spark was briefly in full, shining view - then it rushed as if pulled by the tendrils into the open spark chamber, lightning the crystal inside brilliantly, and then the spark chamber slid closed again.

A soft murmur billowed up, relief and awe in one, and as Sentinel stood up and the pod closed, one of the attendants broke out from the crowd at Bypass' nod to look over the pod and its now infinitely more precious content.

Still smiling, Alpha Trion turned slightly with the rest of them as Sentinel crossed to the next pod, and like always, was reminded of not just his own and his siblings' Ignitions, but the first few _regular_ ones. Not that those, in the end, had proved viable for long, but the memories were still burned into his memory banks with the significance of _first steps_.

He remembered Alchemist and Quintus trying out variations of material plucked from Cybertron to make the core of the new frames, experimenting. They only had themselves as templates to work from but were unable to replicate it as Primus wouldn't draw material from around the Well itself for the new generation as had been done for the first Thirteen.

And then there'd been the success of the first protoform material, and the issue of making sure there would always be more... Optics dimming as he watched Sentinel kneel again and lower his hand into the liquid, Trion briefly offlined his optics. In the end, they'd decided not on any locations in any of their settlements, rather seeding a few areas around Cybertron - the Sonic Canyons becoming chief among them, as the sound there seemed to encourage the material to grow - for protoform harvesting.

Turning his optics back online again in time to see the first, seeking tendrils of sparklight search for that first sympathetic _zap_ of meeting protoform and then the spark chamber, Alpha Trion felt his earlier tension and irritability bleed out and he loosely held his arms behind his back under the quite honestly only cosmetic kibble that fell down his back.

The room was filled with the muted sounds of the collected frames and a bright pressure that a few could hear as proper _sound_. It came from the opened Matrix, the light spilling out from it in unrestrained brightness and it was the closest he would ever get to standing in front of the Well of All Sparks before the Seal had locked it up, so that, if Unicron would ever enter this universe again, Cybertron wouldn't be that easily found.

Sentinel walked to the next pod, kneeling again, and surely it was an illusion that it took a moment longer than the other two times for the first tendril to appear..?

Nonetheless, Alpha Trion straightened up, because the song he could hear as clear as suns-lit day had changed, just slightly. What in the name of Cybertron---

The spark that slid out was abnormally large, and shock made several vocalisers click on static at the sight.

"Split spark?" one of the attendants asked in stunned captivation as Bypass strode forward to the controls of the pod, the glow of his visor narrow and steely focused on the swirling mass that was orbiting around itself, like twin suns.

Alpha Trion stared, tightening his hands where they still were behind his back, and said nothing.

Because those weren't split spark twins.

A spark splitting into two only ever did so right before entering the spark chamber, not _before_ or right as it exited the Matrix. This was two individual sparks pulled out together, yet connected not just by orbiting each other as they were, but by thin, pale golden tendrils that spanned the bare space between them and wrapped around each spark, like strings.

The two sparks were somewhat ponderous as they crossed the distance between the Matrix and the pod and Bypass was winding tighter for every full second that passed.

"Get additional protoform from terrace five, in the case the protoform doesn't split to accomodate them." There was no lightness in his voice at the moment, only sharp tenseness and one of the attendants not already at a pod dashed away, optics wide and bright.

It was hard to remain in his spot, because what he _wanted_ to do was get up next to the pod with Bypass and Sentinel, to watch closer over those sparks as they drew closer to the spark chamber. He was, for the first time in a long while, worried. What if the protoform didn't split - or what if the attendant didn't get back in time with the additional protoform..?

It was important that these sparks make it.

This was utterly certain, because now he understood that stubborn, glittering image the Covenant had seen fit to show him, enough to drive him out of its chamber and aboveground to wander in a rare fit of pique (which he could admit that that was what it had been, now). It was _important_ \---

The sparks touched the rim of the opened spark chamber, and the protoform around it jerked and then _heaved_ , boiling and working at an exponential rate. It wasn't quite enough to create a full spark chamber in the time it took the first spark to settle into the _original_ spark chamber, but it was enough for the beginnings of one, which drew the second spark into it with the same unerring force as a proper spark chamber would have done.

The poor attendant came clattering back up the stares to relieved clapping and not a few quiet cheers, pushing past the group to offer Bypass the container with protoform.

"Will they be all right?" Sentinel had gotten back to his feet but his face was twisted into a frown, optics dim as he looked between the still-open pod and Bypass, who smiled.

"We'll add some more protoform to lighten the stress of the fixed amount of protoform having to be divided between two instead of one protoform, and I'll be monitoring these two myself, but yes, Prime. I am pretty sure they will be. Especially since the protoform _did_ split to accommodate them," Bypass said as he bent over the pod, opening the container and tipping the protoform within down into the liquid and watched it split apart and divide itself up between the two clumps of protoform, one getting a larger share than the other.

"Split-spark twins are always somewhat difficult to deal with at this juncture, as you can't be certain the protoform will split on its own to accommodate them, but since that happened here and we already had additional protoform available to help ease the way... There's nothing to worry about," Bypass was smiling now, though Trion caught the shade of strain at the corner of his mouth, and as the rest of the group and Sentinel turned to the next pod, he quietly stepped up to Bypass.

"This sort of excitement doesn't happen every day, hm?" Bypass chuckled dryly and closed the pod, even if he was still staring at the two clumps of protoform and not at Alpha Trion, "I hope your old spark can take it."

"I think I can handle it," Alpha Trion said, smile faint but there as he laid a hand on Bypass' shoulder above the upper joint of the wing and squeezed, "maybe a bit of excitement is precisely what I need, even."

Bypass looked up, visor flickering, more at the _tone_ than Trion's quiet voice, and tilted his helm.

"You wish to become their mentor?"

Optics briefly flickering over to the group by the next pod and seeing Gravitas' back turned, Alpha Trion nodded.

"Perhaps there was a reason I ended up here despite forgetting the schedule."

Bypass laughed quietly, some of the tension in his frame finally bleeding out.

"I'll arrange it. I think it'll do you good," Bypass said with a grin, and Trion reset his vocaliser and huffed before he left to witness the remainder of the Ignition, though he did cast a lingering glance at the pod with his future protégées. It wasn't like he hadn't ever been a guardian before and while he _was_ , sometimes keenly, feeling his age, he could still deal with protoforms. There would only be two of them, after all, and protoforms soon enough became independent enough to only need the occasional support.

***  
 **The Chamber of the Ancients, a day after the Ignition Ceremony.**

He had expected the summons, really. Despite that he doubted that Gravitas had heard his exchange with Bypass, it wouldn't be hard to find out he'd signed up as a mentor... in fact, he suspected they checked each and every time he attended an Ignition to see if he did exactly what he'd done this time.

Once, they wouldn't have cared. Would, probably, have been ecstatic that he would deign to guide one of the newsparks. Nowadays, and for a long time by now, however, that wasn't the case. Alpha Trion wasn't exactly sure how or why, but a divide had formed nonetheless. 

It was... tiring, and frustrating. The society they had built up from almost nothing was an accomplishment, but he held concerns about the effects of their 'flat approach' regarding the cybertronian population... they were not, after all, all programmed in the same way.

They knew it, too, Trion and the Council all, but at some point - he couldn't quite pinpoint _when_ \- the Council had started to push that that difference didn't matter. It had worried him since he'd noticed it.

The galleries of the Chamber he walked through were wide and airy. The light fell in from the outside and the corridors were well-lit, both from the light fixtures and the lit up glyphs set in among the etchings in the metal on the walls. It was a shining, open brightness, and yet he could feel the suspicion, though of course not from any of the guards.

None of them had any idea of who he was, and even the Council only knew him as the Guardian of Vector Sigma and advisor to Primes past.

It was better that way.

The doors into the Council's circular meeting hall opened with whispering ease despite their sturdy build, and Alpha Trion wandered inside without waiting for any announcement. The doors closed behind him the same way and then there was only him and the members of the Concil inside. He stopped after barely having stepped onto the Matrix-shaped platform in the center of the room, light spilling around him from the floor beneath the platform, and gave each of the mechs seated on the curving terrace a look.

"Alpha Trion."

"Gravitas."

Once, there would have been a semblance of warmth in the polite greetings, but none were present today nor had been in a good, long while. There was also an additional moment of flat silence as the two stared at each other, arguments and resentments stirring quietly between them.

"Members of the Council, your summons has been answered. Might I inquire what it _concerns_?" As if he didn't know already. So while he certainly had the patience to stand here through a polite dance of conversation and inquiries, he hoped they would forego that today.

"Guardian, it has come to our attention that you are willing to take time from the duties you have shouldered for the greater pattern of Cybertron to be upheld in favour of guiding two protoforms. It's merely our intention to ask if Vector Sigma wouldn't be better served by a guardian who isn't... distracted. No matter the great wisdom you would surely be able to confer on the newsparks."

Pleasant, intent, and polite... well, barely.

Alpha Trion tilted his helm and let his gaze roam from Gravitas to Vraz, to Kudon, and then their chosen apprentices, and back to the first of the Council.

"I believe I know how to _prioritise_ as necessary, Gravitas, but your concern is noted."

Another few moments of staring before Gravitas inclined his helm, the plates that made up the 'cowl' shifting to allow it. It was a curious thing, the modifications done to all of the Council members to appear to wear robes. Gravitas had said, back when the relationship between the Council and the Guardian of Vector Sigma had been less tense, that it had been done in an appearance of uniformity and to avoid any altmode assumptions.

Despite this, most of them possessed some sort of kibble on the back that might imply wings.

"If you cannot be swayed, perhaps that is the will of the Source. But hear this, Alpha Trion; your protégées need to be taught as anyone else. _All are equal_." Gravitas' single red optic turned into an intense pinprick of crimson, and Alpha Trion, after a moment, lifted a hand to his chestplating, touching the metal above his spark chamber.

"Of course, Gravitas."

It would have to be as it was, regardless of what he _thought_ about it. Those two sparks were important, though he couldn't but think that not revealing the differences inherent in the population would hamper them, somehow...

"The Council of Ancients is gratified to have the assistance of the Guardian of Vector Sigma in all things."

Bowing slightly deeper at the multi-voiced intonation, Alpha Trion didn't shake his helm before the door to the chamber had closed behind him. If that statement only was true in its truest meaning and in _both_ directions, rather than what it _actually_ meant... At least the choice of Prime was and had been pure, regardless of the tensions between him and the Council.

He would simply have to work with what he _had_.

***  
 **Iacon Ignition Chamber, a megacycle later.**

The windows up in the ceiling were uncovered again, and late afternoon sunlight poured in at an angle, gilding the eastern walls. Passing one protohatcher attendant as he walked up the stairs to the third terrace, Alpha Trion paused at the pod closest to the stairs. The protoform within was barely half-formed, still lacking most of the limbs, but the torso and head was mostly formed.

Smiling faintly, Alpha Trion bent down and reached out, tracing his fingers along the thick armour glass that made up the front of the pod and then crossed the platform to come up beside Bypass.

"How are they doing?"

The two protoforms within somehow managed to give the impression of having one of them wrapped around the other despite the same lack of limbs as the first one he'd passed had. It made him smile again, though he was more familiar with two protoforms that shared a pod would be equally involved in the motion... Though maybe the lack of limbs helped the illusion of spooning instead of a mutual embrace.

"Surprisingly well, truly," Bypass said, a smile on his face and his visor bright, and nothing could have been more _reassuring_. If Bypass had been trying to be _optimistic_ and couching the actual danger in hope, he'd have made more noises about how things would certainly be well instead of what he'd actually said.

"They've now equalised in development despite the differences in protoform mass earlier. Though, surprisingly enough, if the trend I'm observing holds, the secondary spark is going to end up with a slightly bigger protoform," Bypass tilted his helm as he gazed down into the pod, a slight quirk to his EM field and expression both, "which is curious, since split-spark twins always share the same altmode..."

"I'm sure the apparent mass difference is only a matter of a trick of the pod and the early development, Bypass. It's good that they're doing well," Alpha Trion said while he watched the two protoforms bob gently in the liquid, front to back. Bypass made a noise beside him, and Trion did not turn to look at him. It wouldn't _surprise him_ if Bypass had suspicions about the sparks' status, but given that it was a curious situation, he wouldn't confirm or deny outright---

"Tell me something, Trion. These aren't split-spark twins, are they?"

He could now feel Bypass' gaze on him, narrow and intent even if his tone was light, disguising the question behind a bright attitude.

"You're a brilliant protohatcher and a skilled medic, so I'm sure your initial judgement of the situation and their status wasn't wrong, Bypass." He wouldn't _lie_ , not to a friend, and not to someone as knowledgeable as Bypass was, but he felt it best to be careful.

Bypass, however, was apparently _not_ having any of that, if the huff and the sudden strike of a thruster heel against the floor was anything to go by.

"Yes, thank you for the _endorsement_! And my experience tells me what I saw a megacycle ago wasn't one spark splitting into two, since you know as well as I that's not how sparks splitting looks," Bypass said, his words coming out in a heated rush, though the hand he rested on the curved top of the pod was gentle as he stared at Alpha Trion sharply.

"We were looking at them from the same angle, and those sparks came out one after the other, not splitting impossibly _early_. What _are_ they?"

With a sigh, Trion turned from the pod to look at Bypass and shook his helm.

"I don't know, Bypass. But given that they're protoform siblings and they are close enough to have managed to slip out of the Matrix together, which, yes, _is definitely_ not something I have ever seen before, I see no issue treating them as split-spark twins," pausing, Alpha Trion glanced down at the pod, considering, "in fact, no matter what their _actual_ connection is, if there is any beyond the physical closeness of their exit, that they came out together is proof enough they should be treated as siblings, I believe. They are healthy despite the scare they gave us, what more could we ask for?"

Bypass stared at him for a moment longer, then let out a slow static sigh and chuckled.

"True. And thirteen sparks instead of twelve for a standard Ignition isn't anything to _scoff_ at, regardless of any _curiosities_ ," Bypass said with a shake of his helm and a smile, and Alpha Trion _almost_ froze but managed a nod as well.

Thirteen instead of twelve.

Standard protoform batches for a torus state Ignition was, indeed, twelve sparks at a time, barring any split-sparks. They were a long-lived species after all, and only a catastrophe would necessitate a large population boost. That it was twelve and not thirteen wasn't anything anyone thought strange in this day and age, and none beyond one still alive would even know the reason for it.

But here they were, thirteen instead of twelve sparks, and not from a spark splitting in two. No, it was two discrete sparks.

Thirteen, a full complement.

It probably meant nothing, but his processor still pulled out the filed image of the orbiting twin suns the Covenant had seen fit to show him.

Well.

What would be would be, and perhaps things would get clearer when the protoforms were mature enough to be brought online, which wouldn't be _much_ longer now.

With a last glance and a slow brush against the glass, Alpha Trion took Bypass' elbow and turned him around.

"Two questions, perhaps; will they need to be moved, since they're two protoforms in a single pod? And would you like energon, if you have the time?"

Bypass cocked his helm and then nodded, his smile bright and familiar.

"The pods can be adjusted somewhat just for situations like split-sparks, so unless they drastically increase in size, we won't have to separate them. Which, really, I hope we don't. It wouldn't be fair," Bypass said quietly and then smiled again, "we can use the terrace on the fourth floor, it'll leave me close enough should anything happen."

"You know what they say about inviting trouble, Bypass," he said with a chuckle of his own as they descended the stairs and walked around the curve of the glowing pool of pure energon.

"'They', hm? Are you letting your old age turn you _superstitious_ , now?" Bypass laughed as the door to the protoform chamber closed behind them and locked itself automatically, securing the precious thirteen sparks within.

"Perhaps I'm merely old enough to recognise _patterns_ and what affects them?"

Bypass' laughter swung light around them as they entered the elevator hidden at one end in the entrance hall, half hidden behind a fountain which didn't just spout liquid into the air, but several glittering representations of sparks coming out of the fountain as well. Or rather, the artists' rendition of the Well of All Sparks, that was. Those mithril sparks, too, Trion noted right before the elevator doors closed behind them, were thirteen as well.

Either he was reading too much into things, since it wasn't like that fountain wouldn't always have looked that way and he was only now noticing, or events were beginning to move. It was merely a question of _where to_.


End file.
